Featured in this Asia Pacific Hospitality Newsletter - Week Ending 17 June 2005
M&C Expanding in Asia With Bangkok Hotel
Mandarin Oriental Expanding Into Chicago
HK Group Buys Crown Hotel in Singapore
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide And Vatika Group
Travelodge Moves Back Its Old Headquarters
Plans To Keep Windsor Hotel Operational
Absolute Share Price Performance, as at June 17 2005


M&C Expanding in Asia With Bangkok Hotel Return to Headlines

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels is building a second hotel in Bangkok as part of the company's planned expansion in Asia. The 326-room hotel, a 50-50 joint venture with Fenatex International Co (Fico), is expected to be operational in 2007. Millennium & Copthorne already owns the 542-room Millennium Hilton Bangkok, which will be operated by the Hilton Group. The riverside hotel is still under construction, despite being originally scheduled to open in the second quarter of this year.


Mandarin Oriental Expanding Into Chicago Return to Headlines

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group announced that it will manage a new 250-room luxury hotel and 50 branded residences which are expected to open in Chicago in early 2008. Mandarin Oriental, Chicago, will occupy 15 floors of a new 90-storey tower which will be a mixed-use development in Chicago's growing Millennium Park neighbourhood. As part of its amenities, the Mandarin Oriental, Chicago, will feature a 1,900m² spa facility, business services, meeting and function space, as well as a 930m² sq ft ballroom. The hotel's residences will be above the hotel, with units ranging from 100m² to 280m².


HK Group Buys Crown Hotel in Singapore Return to Headlines

Crown Hotel in Singapore has a new owner in the Park Hotel Group of Hong Kong, which paid US$180 million for the 311-room freehold property on Orchard Road. This translates to approximately US$580,000 per room, reflecting a net yield of 5% based on the hotel's existing operations. In phases, the new owner is expected to upgrade the hotel and its 4,200m²; retail area in phases while keeping the property open all the time. It is also likely to increase the retail space in the property to improve yields on the asset.


Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide And Vatika Group Return to Headlines

The Vatika Group has announced an agreement for Starwood to manage the Westin New Delhi Hotel, Gurgaon, India. Scheduled to open in 2007, the hotel will feature 300 rooms, five dining outlets, 1,600m² of meeting and function space, an approximately 1,500m² health and spa center, as well as retail outlets. Located in Gurgaon, the emerging central business district of New Delhi, the Westin New Delhi Hotel will provide travellers easy access to key convention and commercial offices which have started to shift towards Gurgaon area due to lack of sufficient land for development of sizeable projects in the current New Delhi central business district.


Travelodge Moves Back Its Old Headquarters Return to Headlines

Malayan United Industries completed the exit of the Corus hotel brand from the Australian market yesterday with the US$38 million sale of its flagship Sydney property and the US$9 million disposal of its Hobart hotel. The group's network once spanned Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide but the hotels have been snapped up by local buyers wanting to expand. The Travelodge joint venture between the listed JF Meridian Trust, James Fielding Trust, which is part of Mirvac Group, and NSW- based motoring organisation NRMA acquired the hotel in Sydney's York Street. The joint venture entered the hotel market at the beginning of the year with the purchase of the US$145 million Travelodge portfolio from the Pritzker family.


Plans To Keep Windsor Hotel Operational Return to Headlines

A twist has emerged in the US$31million sale of Melbourne's iconic Windsor Hotel with the likely buyer proposing to keep the hotel operating. Pan Urban has rejected plans to sub-divide the hotel into apartments and will keep it running for several years if they get control. The hotel is owned by the Oberoi group, which would run it for the new owner. The five-storey building on the corner of Spring and Burke Streets has 160 rooms. Oberoi spent US$14 million renovating it to its colonial glory after it purchasing it in the 1980s and spent a further US$7.7 million on it in the mid- 1990s.


Absolute Share Price Performance, as at June 17 2005
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